Urbino was, for a few decades in the fifteenth century, one of the intellectual capitals of Europe, and its palace is the physical form of that ambition. Federico da Montefeltro — soldier, patron, collector — gathered architects, painters and craftsmen from across Italy to build a residence that a contemporary described as a city in the form of a palace. The result combines the famous façade with its twin slender towers, hung above the valley, and an arcaded courtyard of extraordinary clarity and proportion. Its most celebrated room is the studiolo, a small private study entirely lined with wood marquetry that depicts, in perspective, half-open cupboards, instruments and books. The palace now holds the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, with masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Filmed in 4K, the programme reads the building room by room, in the historic centre inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
